Mechs vs Minions

For anyone who enjoys programming, deduction, and/or cooperative games, keep reading. Designed by the excellent Nikki Valens (designer of Mansions of Madness 2E and Legacy of Dragonholt), Quirky Circuits is coming from Plaid Hat Games this summer and features some of the most adorable miniatures ever created. 2-to-4 players cooperate in one of twenty-one scenarios to complete their goals before their batteries run out. Using the same scenario book system that other Plaid Hat releases such as Stuffed Fables and Comanauts have used ensures quick and easy setup to support the fast and engaging gameplay.

“Players place programming cards face down, only knowing what types of cards their friends have played – movement, turn or quirk. Quirk cards must be played before a player uses any other card in their hand and every player must play at least one card per round. Using deductive reasoning, all players will move the robo-buddy around the board, trying to complete its mission!”

“Quirky” really is an appropriate adjective in the title, because that’s precisely what I wanted to write several times during this article to describe it. Everything about the look of the design is cute, fun, compact, and to-the-point, and that’s a great advantage for this game. Not to be understated, Quirky Circuits fits an excellent niche in the market right now, being a much more accessible point of entry to teach programmed movement and deduction, in stark contrast to the long-lived Robo Rally. Moreover, this is only the second cooperative version of such a mechanic after the heavyweight Mechs vs. Minions, where the speed of setup due to Plaid Hats innovation will really shine in comparison. If you’re interested in learning more about Quirky Circuits, check out Plaid Hat’s news and product pages for updates, pictures, full rules, and availability.

The winner’s of this round of Dice Tower Awards were announced this last week at Dice Tower Con, recorded live for YouTube as well. The nominees were selected by a panel of roughly 100 people, with voting shortly after managed by Jason Levine. A hearty thanks to everyone who participated. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, which made for a fantastic list of games who all deserved the award, but of course there can be only one victor in each category. So without further ado:

It’s that time of year again, the Dice Tower has announced their nominees for the best games of 2016. These are the best of the best according to the panel of judges on games released in English in 2016. You can see previous winners along with this year’s nominees and their pictures on the Dice Tower Awards website, and look forward to the winners being announced at Dice Tower Con later this year. And now, your nominees:

Best Game from a New Designer (The game has to be the designer’s first or second published game to qualify for this award)

The folks over at MMOBro apparently play a lot of board games as well as video games, because they decided to put together a list of board games that give a similar feel to popular MMO games. Some notable examples being if you like Farmville, you might like Cottage Garden for the simplified farming and aiming to maximize your points. Another popular pairing they make is EVE Online to Twilight Imperium 3, because both are space games that take place on a galactic scale with massive battles, researching of alien tech, and so much more. They even make the obvious pairing of League of Legends to Mechs vs. Minions, mainly due to the same game company doing both games, but also because they do have a similar feel when playing. So if you are looking to bring in your MMO playing friends or are an MMO player looking to try some new games, head on over to MMOBro to check out their pairings.